Retired General William Westmoreland, who commanded U.S. troops during the Vietnam War, has died at the age of 91.

Family members say the general died late Monday at a South Carolina nursing home.

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, General Westmoreland quickly rose through the military ranks during World War II. By 1964, he was a three-star general commanding troops in Vietnam, where he led U.S. forces until 1968.

The general, who oversaw a vast increase in the numbers of U.S. troops in Vietnam, insisted the effort there was successful in holding communism at bay. He blamed any failures on President Lyndon Johnson's reluctance to expand the war into North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

In 1982, General Westmoreland filed a $120 million lawsuit against the CBS television network over a documentary that implied he had underestimated enemy troop strength in Vietnam to his superiors. The case was settled out of court.